Chinatown

Private investigator Jake Gittes is hired to follow Los Angeles water official Hollis Mulwray, but discovers that the woman who retained him was an impostor. The real Evelyn Mulwray draws him toward missing water, land deals, and a powerful family.

Polanski and Towne construct noir from partial knowledge: reflections, photographs, water records, Los Angeles locations, and Jack Nicholson's restricted viewpoint steadily widen a routine investigation into a study of civic power and private violation.